“If you stand naked in front of 100,000 people and tell your deepest darkest secrets, now what? That’s kind of how I feel like I live my life.”

So says Nikki Sixx, the Motley Crue and Sixx:A.M. bass player who just released his second book, This is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx. Through words and photographs, the book showcases the rocker’s innermost thoughts on his childhood, career, relationships and ideas on beauty.

“The bigger message of my book is, let’s look below the surface when we can,” he says.

“I’m not saying that the Hollywood actress with the perfect jawline isn’t beautiful. I‘m saying, isn’t there a little more to this?”

Sixx is comfortable pushing the envelope — whether he’s discussing the music industry with fellow artists or forging ahead with Sixx: A.M. and figuring out just what it is they’re trying to create themselves.

“Record companies don’t like guys like Nikki Sixx that tell the artist how to take control of their own assets,” he says.

“We haven’t really discovered who we are [and] there’s something really beautiful about that. We’re just trying to get to know our audience, and our audience is getting to know us."

“At this point we’re kind of going, let’s just date a little before we start f—ing. I’m down for the sex, but can I just get to know you first?”